


Here There Be Dragons

by LandofWordsandNonsense (RiaHawk)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Lorenzo gets exactly what he deserves, Molly's not dead, Molly's not what he appears to be, PRETTY GOOD IT DOESN'T SEEM, References to Torture, Temporary Character Death, fixit fic, how goes your barbecue Lorenzo, i will take a hammer and fix the canon, things it would have been good to know beforehand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 14:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17747483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiaHawk/pseuds/LandofWordsandNonsense
Summary: They were winning until they weren’t.There had to have been a different way of doing this, a way that didn't leave Mollymauk Tealeaf dead in the snow with his eyes open and a hole in his chest. They had gone from seven to four to three and it had nearly been two. They couldn't afford any mistakes any more.Then he very clearly saw the slight rise and fall of Molly's chest, and a thick cloud of crystallized breath emerge from his mouth.





	Here There Be Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> This came up in a discussion with my best friend [Kei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/adakie/pseuds/Kei) and they let me take their idea and run away with it. It was too much fun not to.
> 
> I don't care what canon says, Molly will never die.

"Fuck you, Lorenzo," Keg spat, trembling with anger. Caleb could tell that she wanted nothing more in this life than to beat his smug fucking face in and cleave his head from his shoulders. But she knew better.

 

They _all_ knew better now, and there wasn't anything any of them could _do_ other than watch the bastard walk away with their friends in tow. Their _family_.

 

"Fuck me indeed."

 

Caleb would have given anything to do the last five minutes over. There _had_ to have been a different way of doing this, a way that didn't leave Mollymauk Tealeaf dead in the snow with his eyes open and a hole in his chest. If one of them had to die, why did it have to be the one who tried to be _good_ ? Caleb had very little redeeming value, better _him_ than-

 

He wasn't sure if the temperature had dropped sharply, or if it was just the shock. He felt too numb with it all to shiver, but he could see his breath crystallizing in clouds in front of him, could have been either, really.

 

It had all happened too quickly, they were winning until they weren’t. Once it went wrong there was no way to pull it back. And they didn't have the resources or the cleric or the _time_ to fix it, it was already too late the moment Molly had blinded Lorenzo to save Beau. Maybe it was too late the moment they had tried to ambush the Iron Shepherds.

 

They had gone from seven to four to three and it had nearly been two. They couldn't afford any mistakes any more.

 

But one day Lorenzo would pay for that blood in the snow.

 

Across the way, he saw Nott suddenly stiffen and he could guess she’d stifled a sudden hiss. Caleb frowned at her in concern, automatically trying to see if it was just the reaction of what had just happened hitting her or if she was injured. She was staring fixedly at Molly's body with an expression that was equal parts hopeful and astonished, and he followed her gaze. For a moment, he didn't see what had caught her attention.

 

Then he very clearly saw the slight rise and fall of Molly's chest, and a thick cloud of crystallized breath emerge from his mouth.

 

Beau was closer, and she jumped a little, then glanced down, her eyes widening.

 

Molly's hand twitched slightly, and his arm moved a little.

 

Beau clapped a hand over her mouth before she could say anything Lorenzo could hear and make him come back. Caleb followed her line of thinking easily. Let him walk away for the moment, let him think they were beaten, because Molly had climbed out of a grave once, it wasn't so odd that he would beat death again. As long as Lorenzo didn't come back to finish the job, they could get Molly to a healer and make a better plan and _get their fucking family back_.

 

Both of Molly's arms were moving now, almost like he was reaching for his swords, but instead he just planted both hands in the frozen dirt he was lying on, and Caleb could have sworn there was something off about them. His claws seemed longer and sharper, talons really, and the lavender of his skin seemed to be slowly bleaching out and losing color. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, his tail lashing agitatedly behind him in a way Caleb had never seen it move before. Molly got his feet under him, then moved to a crouching position, sitting on his heels with his hands still splayed on the ground in front of him, talons digging furrows in the dirt. His hands were a shining, silvery-white now, and it had crept up past his wrists under the sleeves of his coat. The same thing was happening with his tail, starting at the tip and moving towards his body.

 

This was all wrong, and Caleb exchanged a glance with Beau, unsure of what they were seeing or what to do about it.

 

Molly was staring at Lorenzo's back, and his red eyes seemed colder and harder than they ever had before, like two polished rubies. His mouth twisted as he opened it, and his teeth were too sharp. Another cloud appeared as he exhaled, thicker than it had been before, and Caleb could have sworn he saw snowflakes dancing in it. Then Molly _snarled_ , a wordless, guttural sound that spoke directly to something in Caleb's hindbrain and made him freeze up so the predator wouldn't see him.

 

Molly hadn't moved, and was still crouching in the same position when Lorenzo turned around.

 

They all convulsively grabbed for whatever they could when he did. Nott’s hands flew to her crossbow and Beau gripped her staff and slid one foot back into a combat stance, while magic prickled in Caleb’s hands. No, _no_ , he _couldn't_ turn around, he couldn't come _back_ , Molly had cheated death once but if Lorenzo saw that he'd make _sure_ the second time, and they could do nothing to prevent him-

 

"Now that's interestin'," Lorenzo said, a nasty smile worming its way across his face. "Maybe I was too hasty. A man too stubborn to die, even a fiend-blood, that could be worth the trouble."

 

There was the sound of tearing fabric, and two long rents suddenly opened up in the back of Molly's coat as two huge leathery wings burst out. They were a bright silvery color, the same as his hands and his tail, and Caleb could see the same color creeping up his chest and neck, making the tattoos stand out in sharp relief. Molly's wings stretched wide, shining in the sun. Slitted pupils opened up in his ruby eyes, and he fixed his gaze on Lorenzo and _roared_. It was a lot louder than it seemed like something Molly's size should be able to produce, echoing off the hills around the Glory Run Road. The horses hitched to the cart suddenly reared back, neighing frantically at something angry and powerful issuing an unmistakable challenge. Then they bolted out of control, dragging the wagons behind them as they vanished up the road.

 

The smile dropped off of Lorenzo's face as if he'd been struck. "No. You wouldn't be worth the trouble at all." He moved so fast that Beau couldn't have gotten to him in time to head him off if she'd tried… though she almost did. He attacked, driving the point of his glaive into Molly's side, and it was only the fear of catching Molly in the blast that stilled Caleb’s hands halfway through the spell.

 

But Molly just snarled again, and there was a shrieking sound of metal on metal as the glaive merely glanced off of the silver scales they could just see through the new hole Lorenzo had put in Molly's clothes. Then Molly glared up at the man, and at some point none of them could quite identify, his face had changed. All traces of tiefling had vanished, and the snout that Molly brought up to snap at him was unmistakably draconic, with silver scales. Lorenzo jerked back just in time to avoid losing his fingers. Frost formed over his arm as Molly exhaled.

 

Then Molly started _expanding_ , muscles rippling under his clothes and scales, and his outline started taking a different shape. Later on, Caleb would kick himself for not paying more attention to the transformation because it was fascinating, but it had been a very long and trying day and right now, this was a little more than he could really process. In any case, it happened very fast at this point. Within well under a minute, where Molly had been crouched was a silver dragon fully twenty five feet long from nose to tail, staring down at Lorenzo with an incredibly pissed off expression Caleb shouldn't have thought was possible for those specific features to make.

 

"These are _my_ people, motherfucker," a voice rumbled, still unmistakably Molly's despite being pitched two octaves lower. " _Mine_."

 

Caleb had always been good at compartmentalizing things, and keeping his head in extreme circumstances. Everyone was staring slack-jawed at the dragon in the middle of the road, trying to come to grips with what had just happened, including Lorenzo. And for a moment, if just a moment, his guard was down. Caleb was just as shocked and astonished as everyone else, but some instincts never left, and Caleb had been trained to take advantages when he saw them. _Extremely_ well trained. And fire always answered his call.

 

He poured everything he had left into the spell he flung at Lorenzo, and for the briefest of moments, he reveled in the way the man screamed, because it was the least he deserved.

 

He'd hoped to burn the bastard through, leave him nothing but a charred wreck who couldn't hurt anyone else ever again, but he just didn't have enough left, although it was a near thing. Abruptly, Lorenzo's scream cut off, and he vanished. Caleb cursed. Invisibility. He hadn't known about that, and had no way to counter it. But thank the gods for small favors, Lorenzo seemed inclined to retreat in the face of the new developments, because none of them were attacked.

 

Keg stared at the Molly-dragon, her cigarette finally falling from her open mouth. "What the _FUCK?!_ "

 

Caleb approached without making the conscious decision to do so, and stared up at the dragon, swaying on his feet. “...Mollymauk?” he said after a moment, some part of him that wasn’t otherwise occupied vaguely proud that his voice trembled only a little.

 

“Caleb?” The dragon stretched forward to sniff at him, then nuzzled him with surprising gentleness, for all that its snout was bigger than a draft horse’s. Regardless, he stumbled a little, though he didn’t fall. “Is everyone okay? I don’t see… where’s Beau? Did she get away? He didn’t-”

 

“She is around somewhere,” Caleb said faintly. He wasn’t entirely sure when she’d moved, but had to believe she’d return presently. “He only killed you. We will, we will recover.” Nott darted over to hide behind him, clinging to his leg and staring up at the dragon with something akin to panic.

 

The Molly-dragon huffed, and icy cold air blew over Caleb. “Thank god. What about the others? Yasha and Jester and Fjord?”

 

“We were not able to get the carts open. Presumably they are still being held. The horses bolted when you-” Caleb stopped and blinked hard, and forced himself to stay here and present. “You are a _dragon_ now, Mollymauk.”

 

“Yeah, I- actually, I think… I think I might have always been one,” Molly said, laying down and resting his head on the ground near Caleb. He vaguely appreciated it; that meant he wouldn’t have to strain his neck to look up at Molly. “I think, the whole time, and I didn’t _remember_ .” Suddenly he snarled, and a brief blast of frigid air left frost on the ground. “Fucking Lucien, he just keeps fucking me over, didn’t leave me a goddamn thing and fair enough I don’t _want_ it but he didn’t even leave me the one thing it would have been _goddamn useful_ to know! We could have gotten the others back without it going so bad if I’d known about it! But fucking _Lucien_! Surprise! I’m a dragon and I don’t even know the first goddamn thing about it!”

 

After a moment, Caleb gingerly patted Molly’s scaled neck, and concentrated very hard on not hyperventilating. “Ja. That is probably true, that we could have done better with a dragon on our side. But we, but we have a dragon now. And we are, we are all alive, and we will take back what was taken from us.”

 

He could _feel_ Keg staring at them both. “You are _way_ too calm about all of this bullshit.”

 

Caleb turned to look at her with exaggerated care that to a practiced eye suggested incipient panic, and when he spoke, there was a barely concealed edge of hysteria in his voice. “Do you really think so? That is, that is very funny.”

 

\---------------------------

 

Lorenzo limped away from the road as fast as he could. He'd let them have this one right now, but he was going to make them pay for this disrespect. If they thought a fucking dragon was going to stop him, he would be happy to show them the error of their ways. He'd take them all, eat the little one, break the woman and make her his personal plaything, and flay Keg and bury her in a salt pit. The wizard he had some special plans for, burn him nearly to death every day and heal him back every night, and cut his tongue out so all he could do was scream. And as for the fucking dragon… he’d make boots out of its hide and spears out of its bones.

 

But that would be in the future.

 

It stung his pride to admit it, but that had been a close one. He couldn't quite manage to regenerate the damage done by the wizard's spell. Fire lasted in a way that cuts and bruises didn't. He leaned against a tree, breathing hard and let his invisibility drop. He was just examining the charred, bubbling mess of flesh the wizard had left him with when he heard a twig snap behind him.

 

"Sup, motherfucker~" He spun just in time to see the woman in blue as she hauled back and launched her fist into his skull.

 

He hadn't known she could hit him hard enough to cave it in completely.


End file.
